Industrial controllers and their associated I/O devices are central to the operation of modem automation systems. These controllers interact with field devices on the plant floor to control automated processes relating to such objectives as product manufacture, material handling, batch processing, supervisory control, and other such applications. Industrial controllers store and execute user-defined control programs to effect decision-making in connection with the controlled process. Such programs can include, but are not limited to, ladder logic, sequential function charts, function block diagrams, structured text, or other such programming structures. In general, industrial controllers read input data from sensors and metering devices that provide discreet and telemetric data regarding one or more states of the controlled system, and generate control outputs based on these inputs in accordance with the user-defined program.
In addition to industrial controllers and their associated I/O devices, some industrial automation systems may also include low-level control systems, such as vision systems, barcode marking systems, variable frequency drives, industrial robots, and the like which perform local control of portions of the industrial process, or which have their own localized control systems.
Human interaction with these disparate industrial devices—including but not limited to installation, and configuration of the devices, identification of the devices' visual indicators, device calibration, diagnostics, retrieval and translation of log data stored on the devices, and other such interactions—often requires the user to be sufficiently near the device to allow the user to visually inspect the device, manually adjust a configuration parameter or mode setting (e.g., by actuating a button or dial on the device), or to plug a physical cable to the device to facilitate communication between the device and a portable computer (e.g., a laptop computer). This requirement restricts the possible installation locations for such devices, since the choice of installation location must allow for these types of maintenance access.
Moreover, installation, maintenance, and diagnostics of these industrial devices often require plant maintenance or engineering personnel to refer to the devices' documentation (e.g., user manuals, installation guides, etc.) or to contact remote technical support entities in order to identify the device, interpret error codes, translate logged data stored on the device, or other such device interactions. However, device documentation may not be readily available to plant personnel when needed, particularly if the user is investigating a maintenance issue on the plant floor. In such scenarios, the user may be located at the site of the problem (e.g., physically proximate to the device), but the documentation for the device may be located elsewhere in the plant (e.g., in the engineering office), or may be missing altogether.
If the user wishes to contact remote technical support personnel to assist in diagnosing a performance issue with an industrial device, the user must first locate the contact information for the remote support office. Once in contact with remote support personnel, the user must then provide information about the device and the problem to be solved, which may include identifying the device, interpreting visual indicators rendered by the device, describing the device's recent operation, etc. However, these interactions between the end user and the technical support staff may require a degree of knowledge about the device that the end user does not possess.
The above-described deficiencies of today's industrial control and business systems are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of conventional systems, and are not intended to be exhaustive. Other problems with conventional systems and corresponding benefits of the various non-limiting embodiments described herein may become further apparent upon review of the following description.